July 2005

I was cruising Craigslist postings todays in order to look for volunteer opportunities that might help advance my career, since my job search has been fruitless so far (but hopefully won't always be so).

I saw a notice asking for an egg donor, and the only qualification was that the donor have a 1500+ SAT. I fit that.

I thought about it for a moment . . . before sense got the better of me. The money would be nice, but I'm sure there are less painful and intense ways to make cash.

The word is that after the London disaster, the Ambulance Service launched a national “In case of Emergency (ICE)” campaign. The idea is that you store the word “ICE” in your cell phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted “In Case of Emergency”.

In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly look at your mobile phone and find out who your first contact should be and be able to contact them.

It’s so simple that everyone can do it. Please do. Email this to everybody in your address book, it won’t take too many “forwards” before everybody will know about this, and it will become an international practice.

For more than one contact name use: ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc. It really could help the emergency services in doing their job.

No? Good. Because I am going to keep doing it and keep doing it until the morons of this country get it through their heads that Wal-Mart is detrimental to our pocketbooks, despite its appearance of being a cheap place to shop. And, yes, I did just call people who shop at Wal-Mart "morons."

The other day, I posted that Wal-Mart supports NPR (probably much to the chagrin of NPR listeners -- I should pledge and tell them to ditch Wal-Mart). This slightly warmed (about, oh, a nanodegree) my icy feelings for Wal-Mart. Another nanodegree was awarded for the Wal-Mart "bio friendly" stores I read about on Treehugger (but see the comments too).

Now, however, all those degrees and more have been lost. Here's an excerpt of an article Jimmy linked to regarding Walmart and the state of Georgia:

"I like Wal-Mart prices the same as the next shopper, but there's a downside, too. Many Wal-Mart employees lack the fringe benefits and insurance that makes the difference between existence and a good quality of life. Yet, we customers pay a surcharge from a different pocket — subsidizing health care for Wal-Mart employees who can't afford it."

Mark then described how Friedman's book pointed out that more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees are in a Georgia health-care program, which costs the state's taxpayers nearly $10 million a year. Mark also pointed out that a New York Times report found that 31 percent of the patients at a North Carolina hospital were Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid.

Mark's column really wasn't about Mr. Walton's store, but about Pensacola and how we're becoming a Wal-Mart kind of town, "cheap and comfy on the surface, lots of unhappiness and hidden costs underneath."

Mostly, this just underscores what I've heard before, including coverage on NPR about the problems caused by Walmart (conspiracy theory time: why do we really think Walmart supports NPR? Is it to get NPR off it's back?). Walmart lowers the average wage in a town and also reduces the number of people on private benefits. Even if you save money by shopping at Walmart, you probably pay all of it back in (1) taxes, (2) increased social problems (because poverty causes lots of people to do things they otherwise wouldn't), and (3) lack of diversity within your town.

I'm proud to say I've never been a Walmart shipper, and I try to encourage other people not to shop at Walmart. There are alternatives, and not all of them include things like REI and Whole Foods (altho I do shop at both of those places). I'll keep sharing data as I come across it, but I'm sure a few google searches could find more than enough data regarding the problems of Walmart, from the economic issues to the now apparent attempted bullying of public news outlets. (I really think newspapers would be much more impartial if they didn't have ads, but then they'd initially cost more too.) Overall, from all the evidence I've seen, it's just not worth it to vote with our dollars at Walmart. Even if we can't change the government on a daily basis, we can change our country by being responsible with our dollars.

I don't need to read this book (The Fair Tax) to know that I've just got two thoughts:

1. wow, it would be great to not have to worry about withholdings, filing taxes, and doing all that other annoying stuff.

2. Unfair burden on the poor. Percentage wise, the poor spend a much great portion of their income than do the rich (even if the rich buy extravagent stuff). This isn't always true, but it's a pretty fair generalization. There's only so much money one person can spend. Plus, there's a basic amount we all need to spend in order to survive, and that amount would be taxed evenly among all, even if someone was below the poverty level.

Now, if there were a way to exempt certain people from this large (23% is what the authors recommend, according to the blurb on amazon) sales tax (say, the un/underemployed and impoverished), then it might be worth considering. But I worry about the impact on the amount of money the country actually takes in. Even if it saves a lot by eliminating the IRS, you'd need to establish new departments to ensure the sales tax is being administered and collected properly (an IRS for just the businesses, if you will). Spending might also be negatively impacted, as some people might have a hard time spending almost 25% higher than the tag price on everything.

I love to cook . . . my way. Not any fancy way, but just plain my way. My ideal recipes contain just a few ingredients; if the list is long, it better be long with things like extra veggies. I'm not a fancy sauce person or anything. Mostly, I just invent my own recipes. But all the fancy recipes do tick me off, because I'd love to make the food, but sometimes it's just too darn hard. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to read the non-expert column this week in The Morning News, which deals with Culinary Pet Peeves. It's pretty funny, and it actually has some good ideas for adapting and dealing with fancy recipes.

Seriously, tho, I am mostly just kind of busy. I say kind of, because I'm just busy during the hours the library is open (the library, ie, the place from whence my internet access comes these days). I work till 4, and the library is only open till 8. I have to eat sometime. Plus, I took a mini-vacation with my parents this week.

Once I've processed that, finished the job apps I'm working on, and prepared pictures to post, I'll give highlights from a day at the Oregon dunes and a day in the redwoods. Quite exciting all around.

miles driven: 621
hours spent in car: 15
books on tape finished: 1.5
(college age) friends visited: 2
other friends (ie staff at school): 6
friends I wanted to see but missed: 2
hours spent in a mall: 2.5
months since the last time I was in a mall: too many to count

cities I passed through but had no time to stop in despite my best intentions:
Coos Bay
Lincoln City
Eugene
Reedsport

other random stuff:
- saw Garden State
- shamed my poor friend (I think I was too overzealous in volunteering to help out)
- bought a wedding present for a friend
- enjoyed the metro area -- went shopping at Winco for cheap groceries!
- decided my vacation was entirely too short. September can't come too soon. If my town were just a little further up on the coast, life would be grand, but this 7 hours to PDX is killing me.

The other day, while listening to NPR (which actually plays programming on the weekends, thank goodness -- I heard my click and click), I was shocked to hear that Walmart supports NPR. While NPR doesn't play commercials, they will play little spots regarding their sponsors.

Anyway, I suppose that's one point for Walmart . . . but I'm still not shopping there.